The present invention relates to an electronic wind instrument capable of imparting expression to a performed tone on the basis of a performance technique or style as commonly employed with natural wind instruments, or to a musical performance input device capable of functioning as an equivalent electronic wind instrument.
Conventionally-known electronic wind instruments are similar in overall external shape to natural wind instruments. Such conventionally-known electronic wind instruments have a plurality of pitch-designating keys arranged or positioned in a generally similar manner to the natural wind instruments, and generate tones in colors or timbres similar to those of the natural wind instruments. The electronic wind instruments do not require a particular resonating section by virtue of their electronic nature, and instead include a variety of tone controlling operators such as tone pitch operators.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI-6-97396 discloses a pitch bender device that is designed to slightly vary the pitch of a generated tone, such as for a vibrato effect, in response to displacement of a predetermined lever operatively connected to an mouth operator in the form of a false reed. The disclosed pitch bender device also includes a separate pitch-bend lever positioned centrally on a tubular body of the device, which provides for upward and downward pitch variations by about a half octave as well as pitch-bend control similar to the above-mentioned. There have also been known other electronic wind instruments, which are designed to afford an enhanced performance expression by imparting additional functions to the pitch-designating keys. Examples of the electronic wind instruments having heretofore been proposed include the ones which detect a velocity with which a key is depressed (key velocity) (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication Nos. HEI-8-305362 and HEI-251098 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. HEI-7-34470), as well as the ones which detect a key depression intensity by use of pressure-sensitive sensors in the key system (Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. HEI-3-108299). Further, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. SHO-56-26798 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,315 propose electronic wind instruments which designate a tone pitch on the basis of a combination of ON/OFF states of a plurality of keys.
Today, diversified performance expression has been demanded more and more of the electronic wind instruments. Examples of the demanded performance expression concern a slur performance for smoothly interconnecting two different tone pitches, a tone color variation based on after-touch information, extension of the range of expressible tone pitches, and easier variations of tone color, volume, pitch, etc. In order to achieve such diversified performance expression, it is desirable that a human player be allowed to easily operate the electronic wind instrument. However, to date, no electronic wind instrument has been developed or proposed which provides for such diversified performance expression.
By contrast, natural wind instruments are capable of diversified performance expression as desired by the human player. Among various performance techniques or styles to achieve such diversified performance expression is the so-called "alternate fingering". In general, the term "alternate fingering" has two different meanings or concepts. In one meaning that is more standard than the other, the alternate fingering refers to different fingering (finger placement) techniques capable of generating a same tone pitch (scale note), which allow for tone generation using the easier-to-execute finger placement depending on the flow of necessary performance operations. In the other meaning, the alternate fingering refers to a fingering technique for varying the color or timbre of a generated tone by applying or not applying a finger action to a predetermined key or hole near the open end of the instrument's tubular body while still maintaining the basic fingering for generating a desired scale note. The alternate fingering in this case varies not only the color but also the pitch of the generated tone. Such alternate fingering is often used in the field of jazz and light music to add musical "ride" or "originality" to a performance. In the following description, the first-said alternate fingering will be called "standard alternate fingering", while the second-said alternate fingering will be called "special alternate fingering". The present invention described in the specification primarily concerns approximating or simulating the second-said, i.e., special alternate fingering.
Some electronic musical instruments have been known which attempt to approximate the alternate fingering in natural musical instruments, but these known instruments can only approximate the standard alternate fingering. Further, in cases where a plurality of performance styles are available to perform a tone of a same desired pitch and different tone colors corresponding to the performance styles are to be selectively used, it has so far been proposed to identify one of the performance styles actually employed and perform tone color control corresponding to the identified performance style. However, the proposed technique is designed to merely add tone color control by applying the alternate fingering and is never positively intended to provide for approximation or simulation of the above-mentioned "special" alternate fingering in electronic musical instruments.
Further, in the conventionally-known electronic wind instruments, start/stop of generation of a tone are controlled by human player's breath pressure from the mouthpiece as in the natural wind instruments. Therefore, generation of a tone can not be controlled with "attack" characteristics (i.e., tonal characteristics of "attack portion") before the breath pressure from the mouthpiece increases from zero to a predetermined level or value above zero.
Furthermore, because the above-mentioned conventional technique, which permits approximation of the alternate fingering in electronic musical instruments, can only approximate the "standard" alternate fingering, it is unable to finely control the tone pitch depending on the alternate fingering employed, although it can additionally execute tone color control. Thus, the conventional technique never contemplates approximating the special alternate fingering and is never sufficient to achieve musical performance rich in expression.
In general, the above-mentioned special alternate fingering in an actual performance is carried out by repetitively depressing and releasing or opening and closing a predetermined key or hole near the open end of the instrument's tubular body while still maintaining the basic fingering for generating a desired scale note. More specifically, as long as only the basic fingering is employed, the pitch of each generated tone is maintained at a predetermined regular scale note corresponding to that basic fingering; however, as the special alternate fingering is applied (namely, as a player's finger action is carried out to depress or close the predetermined key or hole near the open end of the body), the color and pitch of the generated tone are varied. Then, as the special alternate fingering is terminated (namely, as the player's finger action is discontinued to release or open the predetermined key or hole), the regular or original color and pitch of the generated tone are restored. Subtle pitch control may be achieved to some extent by the conventional standard alternate fingering technique; that is, in this case, it is ascertained whether a detected alternate fingering performance is the special alternate fingering, and if so, the pitch of a scale note corresponding to the basic fingering may be subtly controlled by an amount as dictated by predetermined pitch-bend data. However, because such an arrangement would only result in a very simple and common form of pitch-bend control just causing the tone generation control of a scale note, corresponding to the basic fingering, to continue to subtly bend-control the pitch of the scale note, the generated tone would unavoidably lack musical expression. That is, the simple pitch-bend control of the generated tone is never sufficient for approximating the "special" alternate fingering as a style of performance rich in musical expression.